pt after Easter.

But, on hearing that several travellers had been unable to reach Petra
even after 'Akabah, on account of hostilities arising between the Alaween
and the Tiyahah Arabs, or on account of the exorbitant demands of money
made by the former of these, I thought the time had arrived for me to
show the practicability of getting at the wonders of Petra from
Jerusalem, under escort of the Jehaleen Arabs near Hebron.

I went accordingly, and treated with the Fellahheen of Wadi Moosa in the
place itself; and numerous travellers have since availed themselves of
this advantage, though none have published an account of their
expedition.

On looking back at my notes of the journey, I am astonished at the rapid
flight of time; for although my recollection is on the whole very vivid,
these notes are dated in April 1851. Full occupation during the
intervening period has seemed to shorten the interval. The scene, too,
is now changed; for instead of the arid desert and the blasted porphyry
cliffs of Edom, then before my eyes, these lines are penned among the
bright green meadows of England, with the broad Thames in view, bearing
large three-masted ships on its tide, freighted with imports from the
most distant parts of the world.

With an officer of dragoons, being a traveller in Jerusalem, and under
escort of Hamzeh, the Hebron agent for the Jehaleen, we proceeded across
country to meet the Arabs in their wilderness.

Leaving the Hebron road at _'Ain Dirweh_, we ascended the lofty hill to
the little village and weli of _Nebi Yunas_, (Prophet Jonah,) which is so
conspicuous an object far away in every direction,--the minaret which
rises from the building giving it very much the appearance of a rural
church in Europe. Thence through well-cultivated fields of wheat and
barley,--green at that season,--towards the village of _Beni Naim_; but
at quarter of the intermediate distance, passed considerable remains of
good masonry, named Khirbet _Bait Ainoon_, (ruins of Beth Enon.) At
_Beni Naim_ is the reputed sepulchre of the Prophet Lot, according to the
Moslems; that of his daughters being on an opposite hill at no great
distance. This village commands a grand prospect of the Dead Sea,
although there is no view of the kind from all the country around. Is
not this the place whence Abraham, after the departure of the angels, saw
the smoke of Sodom and Gomorrah rising as the smoke of a furnace? (Gen.
xix. 27, 28.)

He